“Washington has become way too consequential in the lives of Americans across the country, and the president has elected to change that,” Pruitt told attendees at the Houston conference in the videotaped address. “The attitude when we arrived said you can’t be about growth and jobs and also be a good steward of the environment. That’s inaccurate. That’s a false narrative.”

Don't let the Trump administration destroy the Clean Power Plan

It’s a lie, alright, but Pruitt’s the one who’s been telling it—not the career professionals at the EPA, and certainly not those who were in place when the Trump administration “arrived,” as Pruitt put it.

Why, then, won’t Pruitt tell the truth about the EPA’s long history of successfully balancing environmental progress with economic growth? Because his aim is to put polluters first and put the rest of us at risk—exactly as the fossil fuel industry has directed him to do.

We face no greater threat to our environment and health—at home and abroad—than Trump, Pruitt, and the rest of the toxic minions this administration has put in place.

They’re not protecting our families, our communities, or our future. They’re exposing all that to growing peril for the sake of polluter profits, in defiance of sound science, global consensus, and the national interest this administration has cynically sworn to uphold.

That’s an agenda we all have a duty to stand up and resist, in the court of public opinion, and in our courts of law.